Parallel Boundaries
by Altra Palantir
Summary: Our resident empath notices some striking similarities in certain relationships (takes place before Insurrection)


Disclaimer: If you sue me you'll get nothing, which is just about everything I have.  
  
Author's Note: This is a short little story that I have no intentions of continuing any farther. It's sort of between First Contact and Insurrection. It brings the attention of four characters to an irony in their lives that us in the real world probably noticed long ago.  
  
Parallels  
  
"You know, Counselor, I've never really noticed until now, how parallel my situation is to Lieutenant Calverson's." the Ensign said, thoughtfully. "Maybe that's why we're such good friends." "What do you mean?" Deanna replied. "Well, you know how she and her son fight? Just so you know. I already know all the details. I was the one who reccomended she come talk to you about it." she said. Deanna nodded. "He's fourteen years old, and he's decided he wants to do things his way, but she still can't accept that he's more than her little boy. It's just like me and my father." "Really? How so?" she replied, knowing what the Ensign was going to say, but letting her explain for herself. "I realized that just like Johan can't see his mother's side of the story, I haven't been looking at my father's. Now that I compare the two situations, I see where all four of us have been wrong. Isn't that funny? Has that ever happened to you, Counselor?" she asked. "I'm not sure." Deanna replied, smiling "probably it has." They talked for a while longer, until both barely remembered how their conversation started. "Computer, what time is it?" the Ensign asked. "It is 1632 hours." the monotone voice replied. "Oh." she said, "My shift starts in half an hour. I'll see you later, Counselor." "Good-bye." Deanna replied.  
  
"Oh, Beverly, I don't know what to do with him sometimes!" Deanna exclaimed, then took another bite of her chocolate sundae. She had just finished relating the details of her last encounter with Will. "Well, Deanna, I don't know what to tell you." her friend replied. Just then Commander Riker walked through the doors of Ten-Forward. "Speak of the Devil." she whispered. Deanna grinned back at her. He saw them and made his way over. "May I have a seat?" he asked. Beverly nodded. "So, what's new?" "Oh, nothing really," the Doctor smiled, giving her friend a knowing look. The Counselor tried very hard not to blush. Riker looked back and forth between the two. "Did I miss something?" "No." Deanna replied, straight-faced, very glad that it was she who was the empath. The Captain walked in, and ordered something to drink. Beverly guessed it was a cup of Earl Grey. He spotted the three senior officers and came to join them. He sat down in the empty seat next to Beverly. "Good afternoon," he said. "Hello, Jean-Luc." Beverly replied, as Riker said, "Good afternoon, Captain." Deanna looked from her friend to the Captain, and then from him to Will. She suddenly remembered a conversation she had had with an Ensign earlier, and suddenly it was all she could do to not burst out laughing. Fortunately for her, Ten-Forward was rather busy, and no one outside the table seemed to notice. "Did I miss something?" the Captain asked, puzzled. "I think we all did," the Doctor added. "What's so funny?" Will asked. "Nothing," Deanna replied, still shaking with silent laughter, "Nothing at all, It's just something someone said to me earlier." "About what?" Beverly asked. "Nothing." "Then why is it so funny?" Will asked again. "It isn't really, it's just I only thought of it now." Deanna lied. "Tell us the story." Will replied. "I can't." "Why not?" the Captain asked. "It's a very long story, I'd say, oh... both fifteen and twenty years in the making." she added slyly, before she could stop herself. Her use of the word 'both' peaked the Doctor's attention. "Both?" she asked. "There's two stories?" "Well..." Deanna stammered, cursing her slip. "Now you have to tell us." Will demanded, playfully. "I could order you to...." the Captain joked. "Give us a hint at least." suggested Beverly. "It has to do with parallel situations." Deanna said, almost reluctantly, but looking meaningfully around the table. "that no one does anything about." A part of her enjoyed seeing the looks on their faces as, especially the Captain and the Doctor figured out what she meant. "But how would..." Will trailed off. "Oh." "I think I have to go now." Beverly said, standing. The Captain made his own excuse and followed her out. "Deanna," Will said, after a moment. "That was horrible." "You asked for it," "Yeah, I guess so. What I wouldn't give to be a fly on the wall in that turbolift."  
  
The turbolift ride from deck 10 was uncomfortably silent. Beverly was both somewhat embarrased, and a little angry at her friend. Parallel situations! she thought. How dare Deanna compare her relationship with Will, to Jean- Luc's and her own. How dare she! They weren't at all similar, were they? A part of her knew that she was embarrassed that Deanna noticed anything, Empath or not. She tried to keep her feelings for Jean-Luc well hidden. They weren't that obvious, were they? She knew she had had feelings for him for some time, but she had never acted on them. She had never done anything to suggest what she felt to Deanna, had she? Well, maybe, once, when the entire crew had been infected by the Tsicovsky virus, but no one was in control of themselves at that point. Besides, that was almost a decade ago. Deanna wouldn't have remembered that, would she? The Doctor sincerely hoped not. No one had ever said anything about it....  
  
At first he was as furious as Beverly seemed to be, but by the time he reached his quarters, he had cooled off for the most part. Will and Deanna were Imzadi, very important to a Betazed, for all that he didn't quite understand it, but they insisted on "just being friends." No matter how obvious it was to everyone else, they somehow didn't see it. Or, after Counselor Troi's comment, apparently pretended they didn't. Pretended for nine years? Only a fool would do that, and he had no desire to call either of them that. I suppose that would make me the bigger fool. he thought. He'd been doing the same thing, for over twice as long. He'd been in love with Beverly ever since Jack died, and that was nearly twenty years ago. No, if he was going to be truthful, he'd admitted to himself that he loved her then. In all actuality... He first developed a crush on her back when she was dating Walker, and that was... closer to thirty years. The more he thought about it, the more similarities he could see.  
  
"Deanna?" Will said after a few minutes, "What did you mean by, that no one does anything about?" He was risking a conversation he wasn't sure they were ready to have. "Nothing really," she smiled, although Will could tell it was partially false. "I didn't mean for it to come out that way, any more than I meant for them to react so strongly." She smiled. Will shook his head at how well she had steered the conversation back to safer territory. "Yeah," he replied, "It makes you wonder." 


End file.
